Your Heaven
by StrawberryPajamas
Summary: You chose this place to spend eternity in, so I'm assuming you already know where we are - Thirteen sees Kutner again after her death. An AU oneshot


Dr. Remy Hadley was lying down somewhere, her eyes closed. Slowly, as though struggling to remain in the lovely abyss of sleep for a moment longer, she squirmed slightly before finally opening her eyes.

White. All she could see around her was a bright, white light. She blinked a few times before she realized that it was the sun, reflected onto a summer sky. Slowly and heavily, Remy pulled herself into a sitting position. Looking around, she realized with a small amount of surprise, that she lying was on grass. She skated her palms over the ticklish ends of the green while looking on the ground all around her. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and (with another small shock) noticed she was wearing a dress.

Remy hated dresses. And the one she was wearing now wasn't exactly eye-pleasing, in her opinion. It was a long, flowery sort of maxi dress with pink and brown flower patterns all over. Drawstrings criss-crossed from her modest neckline all the way to halfway down her cleavage, though revealed very little. Luckily, this atrosity was sleeveless, for it was really warm here, wherever 'here' was...

"Good to see you again, Thirteen."

Dr. Hadley looked up and noticed a familiar person sitting a few feet away. He was wearing a polo t-shirt and cargo jeans, a casual smirk on his face she had never really forgotten.

Remy smiled fully back. "You too, Kutner."

The park bench on which he was sitting on lay parallel to a jogging trail which, Dr. Hadley suddenly realized, led to a park, where children were laughing and running, playing freezetag.

Chuckling, Kutner pushed himself up and walked over to Remy, offering her a hand. She took it, pulling herself up to stand, smiling gratefully while brushing herself off.

"So... where are we exactly?" Remy asked curiously, glancing around the scene around them.

Kutner glanced around interestedly too. "Not sure. This is _your_ heaven, isn't it?"

Remy looked back at Kutner, her eyebrows raised. "My what?"

Kutner's boyish face was still alight with a smile. "You chose this place to spend eternity in, so I'm assuming you already know where we are."

Dr. Hadley felt shocked. Was she really in heaven? She held out her hands and flexed her fingers experimentally, trying to see if she was still flesh and bone. She still looked rather solid, and she turned her head up to look back at her former colleague again.

"Is that why I wasn't surprised when I saw you?"

Kutner chuckled again. "Some things you just naturally accept after you pass on."

Wonder and amazement suddenly filled Remy as her eyes drifted over the scene around her once more. It was a beautiful day out: the grass was green and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The air smelled sweet all around her as the children at the nearby playground sprinted back and forth, laughing happily. Remy couldn't help but smile as her eyes passed over them.

"So this is my heaven?" It sounded more of a statement than a question. Kutner still answered it, however.

"Yep. And this is a pretty good one, I think. Way better than mine." He suddenly looked a little sheepish. "Mine is on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters."

Remy stared at him. "Sorry?"

Kutner looked a little defensive. "You know... Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. From the Harry Potter series. I'm boarding the Hogwarts Express and... oh come on, they were really popular books!" for Remy had suddenly started cracking up. "I – I was in college and... all my friends were reading them..."

"No, no that's... fine." She giggled out, discreetly covering her mouth.

Kutner went red, shoving his hands in his pockets. He then turned away and started walking down the jogging trail, indicating that she should follow. Dr. Hadley obliged, smiling as she caught up and fell in step beside him.

"So you're not a part of my heaven?" Remy couldn't help but grin impishly at her friend, giving him a small elbow shove. Kutner still looked down, grinning to himself.

"No, sorry." Kutner turned to look back up at the woman beside him, a lopsided grin still on his friendly face. "We each have our own, and I'm just visiting yours. When I heard you were coming, I decided to stop by as a little welcoming into your new home."

Remy's smile suddenly faded. A thought had occurred to her, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. Kutner stopped too, looking at her curiously.

"How... exactly did I get here?" she asked slowly. "To 'my heaven', I mean."

Kutner merely shrugged. "As for that, I can't say."

"Why not?"

"It was your death." Kutner stated simply.

Remy blinked, and before she knew it, a vision, a memory of some sort, flashed before her eyes:

~/~

_The weather was getting really bad. Warnings of snowstorms and blizzards were all over the weather channel, urging viewers to stay indoors. Remy was grateful for her small, cozy apartment as she watched the wind whistle loudly outside, and sleet hitting against the sliding glass door in a repetitive staccato. She stood there in her slippers, sipping on a cup of coffee._

_An involuntary jerk of her arm made her slop the hot drink down her shirt and onto the floor. Swearing under her breath, Remy turned to grab a towel and scrubbed uselessly at the brown stain on the fabric. She wiped up the rest of the mess and went to put the towel back in it's proper place._

_Sighing to herself, Remy stood in front of the sliding glass door once again, watching the snow, her now-empty coffee mug left forgotten on the counter. Her Huntington's was getting pretty bad lately. The medication she was on didn't seem to help much, either. Therapy was a little more helpful, but still, it wasn't going to stop what was happening to her. Dr. Stenson, her psychiatrist, asked to her record how many spasms she had every day of the week, then average them together. This week, she had an average of twenty-four spasms a day. Three weeks ago, it was merely twenty._

_The phone suddenly rang, and Remy turned around to answer it._

_She didn't know if it was the sudden movement of muscles, or the surprise of the loud ringing sound, but Remy's neck and back began to spasm. Crying out in pain, she hunched over, causing her left arm to flail out of control... _

_Her hand hit something hard, there was a shattering noise, then next she felt something warm and wet trickling down her neck. _

_And then..._

_Everything went black._

~/~

"Your hand hit the sliding glass door, and broke it. One of the pieces of glass flew toward you and severed your jugular vein." Kutner whispered, looking somberly into his friend's tear-filled eyes. "When they found you, it was too late."

Gulping, Remy tried to regain composure. "You... you said that you didn't know how I died, though..."

"I lied," he stated simply.

The two were silent for several minutes as they walked on down the path, going around the small park several times over. Dr. Hadley became thoughtful after the initial shock of her death overcame her. The thought didn't disturb her as much as she thought it should have. Again, she flexed her fingers in front of her eyes, and noticed something she didn't realize before.

"No tremors." Remy noted, looking up at Kutner, who was grinning back at her.

"Nope. Not up here."

Before either of them could say another word, however, there was a sudden outburst of "Mommy! Mommy!" from behind them.

Remy turned around and noticed one of the little girls who was playing tag wave happily at them. Dr. Hadley turned to Kutner in surprise.

"Is she talking to me?" she pointed to herself, shocked.

Kutner chuckled. "So I guess your heaven is spending a day in the park with your daughter." As Remy turned toward the little girl, and a grin broke out on her face, he added. "Your _healthy_ daughter."

The little girl who so resembled her mother was running up toward Remy, laughing, and tears could help but escape Remy's eyes as she knelt down and held her arms open. The girl launched herself into her mother's embrace, and Remy couldn't help but quietly cry into the girl's t-shirt as she held on tight. Remy had always wanted a little girl, and now she had one.

"Mommy! Come play!" The little girl shouted gleefully after she let go, and began tugging her mother by the hand over to the playground. With one last glance and nod from Kutner, Remy allowed herself to be pulled by her daughter toward the jungle gym, smiling the entire way.

* * *

"_Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend." - _Plautus


End file.
